[asdf-devel] summary proposal for COMMON_LISP_PATH and system search changes

[Daniel Herring]

On Thu, 1 Oct 2009, Gary King wrote:

>> This file will be used to configure stuff like asdf-binary-locations,
>> correct?  IMO, the config file should be loaded before the CL_SYSTEM_PATH
>> variable is used.  They could usefully modify DEFAULT_CL_SYSTEM_PATH; but
>> they should never modify the actual CL_SYSTEM_PATH (e.g. a shell script
>> may need custom settings).
>
> Can you provide some examples of what you see folks doing with this?

This would be a central spot to customize ASDF for all lisp 
implementations on a system.  It would have stuff like.

(setf asdf:*centralize-lisp-binaries* t
       asdf:*default-toplevel-directory* #P"/fasls"
       asdf:*compile-file-failure-behaviour* :warn
       asdf:*default-central-registry* (list p1 p2 p3)
       ...)

Again, it should be searched in the usual configuration paths (e.g. 
~/.asdf-config.lisp, /etc/asdf-config.lisp), not in CL_SYSTEM_PATH.  A 
CL_SYSTEM_ENV variable could replace CL_SYSTEM_PATH by pointing directly 
to this configuration file...

Later,
Daniel

P.S.  If these are to be used by non-asdf systems, then it may be 
appropriate to move such symbols outside the asdf package.  Similarly, 
there would be a need to specify initialization semantics so the different 
systems set them cooperatively.  Fortunately, these issues can be 
addressed at a later date when such systems exist.